Larry's Gallery:   Singing Honeyeater (1/5)

PASSERIFORMES: Meliphagidae

Lichenostomus virescens  

"'Singing' is a misnomer, I feel, for its ordinary voice is hardly tuneful or attractive. Yet its presence explains something I have been hearing for these last few days. Every now and then I felt sure the Rainbowbirds were back again, for I would hear, if faintly, that purring, metallic call, but would search the sky in vain.

Then I remembered the similarity of a call of the Singing Honeyeater to that of our most colourful migrant visitor.

It's always satisfying to solve a mystery."*

*Schurmann, Ted (1984). Australian Birdwatcher's Diary. Rigby Publishers, p.42.